Social Media

VW's "The Force" Super Bowl Ad Goes Viral [VIDEO]

Ignoring the conventional wisdom to keep one's Super Bowl ad a secret until the game, Volkswagen put its ads on YouTube this week and got significant buzz.

The 60-second ad features a pint-sized Darth Vader (a kid in a Vader costume, actually) using The Force (actually a key fob secretly used by his dad) to start up a 2012 Passat. So far, it has netted 1.5 million views on YouTube, and was also a trending topic on Twitter earlier today.

A rep for Deutsch, the ad agency that created the spot, says although advertisers sometimes release their Super Bowl ads the Friday before the game to get network TV coverage, it's unusual to air the ad a few days prior to that.

In addition to the Darth Vader ad, VW also has a 30-second Super Bowl ad on YouTube called "Black Beetle" that shows a CGI-created beetle racing around as the song "Black Betty" plays. That ad has gotten about 162,000 views since it went up yesterday.

"The Force" as the initial ad is known, is set to run in the second quarter. "Black Beetle" will run in the fourth quarter.

What do you think? Would VW have gotten more buzz if it had waited to show the ad during the big game? Let us know.

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